ABSTRACT
The behavior of rigid structures on rigid base or deformable media such as soil has been addressed by many researchers in the past. The behavior of a rigid body on the soil under static or cyclic actions, such as self-weight, wind or earthquake, is of great concern for both structural and geotechnical engineers. The engineers have to take into consideration the effects of such forces on the structure itself and on the soil as well. Here, a very significant role is in the soil-structure interaction. The paper presents the behavior of a rigid block on a uniform, medium dense, sand under horizontal acceleration of the base. A 6 cm wide rigid aluminum block with different height to width ratio (H/B) has been used. Hight to width ratio used in this research was 2.25, 3.75 and 4.5. The block was either placed on the sand (D = 0 cm) or was embedded in the sand prior to subjecting it to horizontal excitation using small shake table. The embedment depth D varied from 0 to 6 cm. The horizontal excitation was a sinusoidal displacement function with different amplitude and frequency. Frequency varied from 0.5 to 3 Hz while the amplitude varied from 0.5 to 5 cm. Combination of various frequencies and amplitudes were used to determine the critical combination of amplitude and frequency for a given height to weight ratio which was later used for more detailed analysis and numerical verification. Displacements of a rigid block and sand below the rigid block were measured using a contactless measurement system, ARAMIS. The results obtained through ARAMIS system were later used as a reference displacement for numerical analysis. Numerical simulations were performed using Rocscience RS2 software. Mohr-Coulomb model was used in numerical simulation.
